Soda In the Park
by Bardicsidhe
Summary: Yami x Jonouchi. There just isn't enough of that lovely, complicated slash. Takes place just before the blimp arrives for the Battle City Finals. Jou and Yami have an issue or two to sort out, because I like wandering in Jou's brain.


Title: Soda In the Park

Authoress: Scylla the Healer

Finished: September 14, 2003

Disclaimer: They dinnae belong t'me. 

YamixJou

            The can of soda left a damp, icy ring of condensation to soak into his jeans as he clamped it absently against one thigh. He was lost in the grip of a fear more terrible than any other he'd ever experienced.

Katsuya Jonouchi was in love.

Or...that's what he _thought_. And despite the fact that the idea thrilled him, really, it also scared him to death. And he hoped to God that it wasn't true. Life would be _so _much easier if it wasn't love.

How was he going to explain it, if it was? To his family? To his friends?

_And more importantly, how the hell do I explain this to Yugi?_

The little, bright-eyed teenager was his closest, dearest friend—after Honda, of course. And Yugi knew things about Jou that he wouldn't _dare_ reveal to his easygoing, uncomplicated, straighter-than-straight best friend.

Like the fact that beyond Mai's obvious charms, Jou found Honda's long legs and broad shoulders incredibly alluring. Oh, no. The poor kid would never want to sleep in the same tent with him again, let alone undress in the same room. _So long, camping trips, _he sighed, and set his untouched drink aside as the chill sweat from the can touched skin with a shock of cold. It was all downhill after you came out to your friends. After swapping spit with Bakura for a few intense seconds, the white-blonde boy had abruptly pulled away, sighed and admitted just that.

Earlier...

"Now I suppose you'll tell everyone," Bakura closed his eyes in regret over his loss of self-control. "Please, I beg you..."

Jou blinked. "Since when does everyone think I'm an insensitive jerk?" Okay, so maybe he had been in high school...but at school, a person didn't have to travel, eat and _sleep _with the same group of kids, day in and day out. You could torment someone and go home and have a soda. Simple as that.

Hope bloomed across the smaller boy's face, and tentatively, Jou had brushed the pad of a thumb over one delicate, pale cheek. "Of course I won't tell. As long as you promise not to tell them about _me, _either." Because Honda would have a fit. And then he'd have a field day. And he'd never let Jou see his naked ass, ever again. Not for love or money.

"Are you kidding?" Bakura snorted – a gesture that certainly didn't match his appearance, "You don't even _act _gay. How would I have found out?"

"Good point."

If only I hadn't sworn him to secrecy. Then Yugi would have known. Then...Yami...

But it was too late. By the time he'd realized that maybe his feelings weren't quite so terrible, after all, they were well on their way to the Battle City tournament, with a gaggle of friends. So much for private time.

The park bench was growing more uncomfortable by the minute, but if he shifted, he'd wake up Yugi. Kaiba had neglected to tell them that there was only one hotel in the area. And that it was for duelists, only. Meaning that only Yugi and Jou would have beds, then. All for one and one for all, and they'd politely declined their rooms.

Too bad. Yugi and I would have liked sleeping in real beds. Or...a bed...I wonder if I could wake up Yami if I touched him just right...

The petite youth leaned comfortably against Jou's shoulder, face relaxed and innocent in his slumber. And even as the taller teen shifted ever so carefully, the other stirred, and an arm dropped across his thigh. Very close to regions he'd rather not have touched at the moment. Brown eyes flew wide. Oh, shit! He jerked away, and as the small hand slid from its near-touch to his nether regions, Yugi cracked an eye open.

"Jou?" He asked, groggily, "what happened? What's wrong?"

Only a few feet away, the others slept. Anzu, Shizuka and Mai to one patch of open ground, and Honda and Ryuuji to another. Evening had only just fallen in earnest, and amidst all his thinking, Jou's soda went warm. Good. He didn't need all that sugar this late, anyway.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong, Yugi. Leg cramp. Go back to sleep." A visible show of will forced his body under control, and he scooted closer again.

"We could sleep with the others on the grass, if that'd be better," Yugi suggested. For an instant, it sounded like a promising idea. Until he imagined the youth's taller, darker half, nestled against his chest with all the innocent trust of a sleeping kitten...

"No. It's okay. I'm fine, see?" He stretched a leg to demonstrate. "Go back to sleep, Yugi. You need your strength for the finals, tomorrow."

Yugi nodded once in solemn answer, and the small head nodded towards Jou's shoulder once more. Greatly daring, a gentle hand flickered out to caress the nape of Yugi's neck, soothing. It was surprisingly smooth, and the little hairs there turned the skin to velvet. Yugi only murmured incoherently and snuggled closer, and so the tender ministration continued. Contented at last for the time being, Jou turned away to gaze out at the ocean and the ships slowly making passage during the night. Cicadas sang gently in a nearby stand of ornamental bushes.

Beneath his hand, Yugi's shoulders heaved, as though he were drawing a great breath for a sigh. Again, Jonouchi blinked, and turned back to his companion...

...and met a pair of knowing violet eyes. It wasn't Yugi...the form curled against his side was larger, heavier, and more lithe. The slight downturn of eyebrows and the curving smirk that graced his features bespoke the teenager's change more eloquently than any words.

"Yami?"

"Jou."

It wasn't often that he heard the affectionate form of his name drop from the other's lips, and the resonant voice sent a delicious tingle of shock along his spine.

"Is...Yugi asleep?" He asked, lamely, and Yami smiled faintly in sympathy. "Yes. He is asleep. But this body will need rest as well, soon."

"Soon?" Jonouchi echoed, shocked at the disappointment in his voice. That's not me, is it?

"Not quite yet." Yami still reclined against the taller blonde's shoulder. The press of his body was suddenly uncomfortably warm, and Jonouchi squirmed.

Silence strung between them and still the violet of Yami's eyes trained on him. 

Say something. Say something! What are you staring at me for?

"I, uh, wish you both luck in the tournament," Jonouchi said, after the quiet and the pressure of Yami leaning against him had become an unbearable combination.

"Do you not wish to win?"

The quiet response was utterly unexpected, and Jonouchi barely withheld a jump of shock. "Of course I want to win!" He shot back, defensive, "It's why I came!"

"Then why would you wish me luck?" An elegant, thin eyebrow arched in question.

"I..." Pause. "I...don't know." But I do know...

"Yes, you do."

He couldn't be sure if the other duelist responded to his words or his thoughts. The enigmatic spirit of the puzzle was harder to read than War and Peace in heiroglyphics. "What do you mean?"

At last, Yami shifted from his pose, and as he moved away, Jonouchi breathed a low sigh of relief. He stretched and slouched, arms draped over the back of the bench as his eyes slid shut. Yami could wake him up to tell him the answer, as far as he was concerned.

A hand that wasn't remotely his own splayed against his chest. Brown, round eyes snapped open, and fuzzed in and out of focus. 

"Has nobody told you that there is depth within you, Jou?" The pharaoh's booming voice carried a quiet sensuality that, when paired with the fingertips heating the fabric of Jonouchi's shirt, caused an allover zing of warmth and streamers of desire down to a place that he'd rather not have awake at this hour of the night.

"What are you talking about, Yami?" He still wasn't used to the name. Nervously, Jonouchi scanned his sleeping comrades to be sure that they still slept. Please, please don't let Shizuka see this. Or Honda...

Honda, thankfully, was dead to the world. And Shizuka's view obscured by the fluff of Mai's hair, whether or not the younger teen was asleep at the moment.

With the silken, fluid grace of a stalking panther, Yami's hand grazed upward along the pale line of Jonouchi's throat, and down the sharp angle of his jaw. Fingertips circled his chin and drew his gaze back to Yami's. His Adam's apple bobbed in a hard swallow.

"This contest has gone far beyond the realm of simple competition. And you know that, don't you?"

"That bastard Malik took over my mind to try and get your Egyptian God Card," Jonouchi replied matter-of-factly, "so whatever's going on is bigger than Kaiba's game. No shit." He was almost bitter now. "I don't have a God Card. I don't even have my Red Eyes anymore. I'm not going to win this contest, so I might as well do my best to make sure that you do."

"Jou..."

"Look," his eyes fell, as he wrested his chin out of the other's grasp and looked away, "I'm okay with it. There's something more powerful than any of us know at stake here. Why else would someone want to hurt me to get you out of the game?" What could be seen of Jonouchi's gaze was obscured by fluffy bangs for a long moment, and slowly, damp tracks made their way down the taller boy's cheeks. "I wish I was stronger. I wish that Malik couldn't have used me." He'd never been raped. He had a good idea what it must be like, after that, "I don't want to be the reason you lose. So I'm going to do everything I can to help you win."

Yami had withdrawn his hands, both clenched into fists against his own thighs as he sat rigidly at Jonouchi's side. His shoulders trembled violently.

"There is only one other person," he began after what seemed an eternal pause, "who would sacrifice something they treasured on blind faith alone. And he sleeps inside me, tonight."

"Yugi and I have a lot in common," Jonouchi said simply, rubbing at his eyes in frustration with the knuckles of one hand. It was too late. He was going to walk past Seto Kaiba with puffy eyes, goddamnit.

So help me, if he says one word...I'll...

"There is one thing between you that is very dissimilar." Yami interrupted the blonde's bloody-minded thoughts.

"What's that?"

Yami spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "I can see my hikari's thoughts. I know what he feels, and I know his memories. His is a clear window...while mine is blurred and dark." Was there a sadness that touched the spirit's tone?

Can he even feel sadness without Yugi awake inside him, I wonder?

The pharoah continued.

"I...find his clarity and his selflessness...very attractive," No rush of rosy color marked Yami's cheeks, but the words had obviously been difficult to free, "but he thinks of me ever and always as a brother. Or the father he so badly needs. Which is, of course, the better way."

The 'of course,' sounded like hollow comfort, to Jonouchi. His heart tightened of its own volition. He's in love with little Yugi. I should have guessed... "Yeah," he managed in weak sympathy. "Probably doesn't help much, does it?"

"Not at all." Yami shot him a smile of such artless gratitude that he found himself forgetting about facing Kaiba with puffy eyes. "Especially when he sleeps. I do not sleep...and so I have plenty of time to...think."

"Maybe you can think about something else?" Jonouchi suggested mildly.

"I do. I think about you, in particular."

"...What?" Blink. Of all the responses he could have expected, that wasn't on the list. "Yami..."

"Let me finish." A slim hand rose, silencing him. "Yugi does and will always think of me without interest. But I have seen you in the company of your friend, Honda. And how you watch Ryuuji. And even Seto Kaiba, on occasion."

"The hell!" Jonouchi snorted. 

Yami unbent enough for a knowing grin and a wink, before he went on. "In short...I desire you, knowing that if I did, you may return those desires with all of your heart. That I wouldn't be chasing after something that doesn't exist."

He fell silent, then, and neither felt the need to speak for a long, long time. The ships continued on their way, far offshore, and here and there moths danced in the golden gleam of streetlights marking the beach boardwalk. Underlying the buzz of the city was the washing roar of waves, always present and as much the pulse of life as the thrum of traffic and din of people.

It was nice, here. Jonouchi could have happily stayed all night, head back, admiring the stars beyond the gilded glow of light pollution.

"Was I wrong?"

The soft question broke the pseudo-stillness into shards, and Jonouchi tore his eyes away from the sky overhead to give Yami a measuring look.

What does it matter to you? Am I just second-best, here?

But that was his life. Runner-up. Appreciated for his scant second of importance, and ignored for everything else. Not unique enough for the spotlight. Not cold enough, or sacrificing enough to be a hero. Secondrate.

Not much of a surprise, there.

He realized that whatever the reason, he couldn't disappoint the achingly lovely god beside him. Not for anything. Not for love or money.

"No, you were right."

Before he could register it properly, Yami was leaning towards him, fingertips catching and holding his face captive as the spirit delivered a soft, exploratory kiss.

A kiss that grew. Changed in its intensity, until they clung to one another with desire and an overwhelming need to assuage their fears. At last, they broke apart, panting.

"Yugi is stirring," Yami admitted with chagrin, "Awakened by the power of my feelings, no doubt."

"A compliment?"

"A compliment, yes."

They smiled at one another, pretended they hadn't, and oh-so-carefully rearranged themselves in their former position. But the heat of Yami's chest against his side was comforting, now, and Jonouchi found it difficult to hold a sense of propriety as a stealthy hand slipped down to rest wickedly against his inner thigh. "Goodnight, Yami."

"Sleep well, Jou."

A smile, a flash, and then the form against his side wasn't so reassuringly tall and muscular. Yugi. The spirit of the puzzle had all but disappeared.

I miss you already, Jonouchi thought with a sigh, and resumed his tender caresses over the velvet nape of Yugi's neck.

Across the grass, sheathed in darkness, Honda's arms folded as he leaned against a snoring Ryuuji. His lips curved into a contented smile.


End file.
